


In the Trunk

by MCUsic_to_my_ears



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Incredible Hulk (2008), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Bruce & Hulk Interaction, Bruce Banner Angst, Bruce Banner Feels, Bruce Banner Has Issues, Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Disjointed Thought, Dissociation, Dissociative Identity Disorder, During Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), During Thor: Ragnorok (2017), Hallucinations, Hulk Talks (Marvel), Inner Dialogue, Panic, Protective Bruce Banner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-22 21:31:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13175607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MCUsic_to_my_ears/pseuds/MCUsic_to_my_ears
Summary: From the moment Natasha pushed Bruce off of Sokovia to the final time he hears her message on the Quinjet, Bruce Banner is trapped inside his own mind, slowly losing his contact with reality.





	In the Trunk

_ Hulk big. Hulk make safe. _

Bruce shook his head minutely.  _ I’m getting us to safety. You destroyed an entire city. I can’t let you break another.  _

_ Banner dumb. Banner trusts. _

_ Yes, I trust. This team contains the one group of people I trust  _ you _ with.  _

_ Banner play house. Banner no protect. _

_ Yes, I do! I- _

The foundation of the roof started shaking over them. “We gotta move,” he announced, even though he knew the agent was already ten steps ahead of him. 

“You’re not gonna turn green?” she asked, eye darting, looking around for the best exit. 

_ Yes. Yes, Hulk out. Hulk smash. Hulk make safe.  _

He ignored him. “I have a very compelling reason not to.”

She smiled. “I adore you.” And suddenly they were kissing and then he was falling. 

**_Banner no protect. Banner trust. Banner wrong. Banner go AWAY!_ **

And then he was falling within his own mind. He felt his body grow around himself, muscles rippling, connective tissue shifting, ripping, breaking. But instead of being able to hold onto some sort of control, some sort of awareness, Hulk swatted his consciousness away as he took over the body.  _ Banner no stop Hulk. _

Bruce screamed into the void around him. He felt time stop. The Hulk couldn’t do this to him, he thought. It was his body. It was his mind the Other Guy lived in.  _ You can’t keep me out! Let me see where you are! Let me help! _ he shouted to the beast. He almost felt him grunt around himself, but it was a phantom of a sensation. A rush of wind through his hair passed over Bruce, but it wasn’t real. It was what the Other Guy was actually feeling being passed into Bruce’s memory. Bruce clawed toward the surface, toward a certain warmth, but Hulk’s consciousness swatted at him, bashing him back into their brain.  _ I’m trying to help! _

_ Banner no help. Banner hurt. Banner push. Hulk push back.  _

_ Please! _

A final hit pushed him into the darkest reaches of the mind. He felt light-headed, as though he were moving to a higher altitude where there was less oxygen. He felt himself become seized with panic, but he didn’t have a body to manifest the symptoms in, only the racing thoughts and thrumming feeling in the back of his consciousness. 

He’d never been this free floating before, at least not since those first days when the Hulk was born, when he first started sharing a mind and didn’t know how to store himself. 

_ “Is that the best you can do? You can do? You can do?” _ Echoed through him.  _ “You had to ask. Ask. Ask. Ask.” _

_ “All of you against all of me. All of me. Me. Me.” _

Bruce felt himself jerking through the darkness as if receiving the blows the Hulk was being dealt through the mind. He felt the vibrations of the roars and the pangs of each laser that hit its mark against the Hulk’s titanium skin. 

_ “Stop me stop me stop me. Hindsight hindsight-” _  A clenching feeling of strength leaving him gripped the core of his being, ripping the power out of him, disorienting him further. 

Then silence. 

The Hulk seething anger ebbed away, leaving uncontained frustration to fester around him. But Bruce felt none of it, only a soft shining of a bittersweet feeling that something was complete. 

_ “Hey, big guy. Sun’s getting real low. Getting real low real low. Big guy, real low low low low low” _

_ Nat?! _ Bruce called.  _ Nat please, I need out! He won’t let me! _

_ “low low low low low low low low”  _

_ Warmth spread through Bruce, a feeling he remembered from each previous lullaby. He let it wash over him, feeling the Hulk step back, except- _

Sharp pangs tore through him. _Gunfire_ , his mind supplied _._ Then a sense of soaring through the air and his body jarring as they landed, only to take off again. 

_ “low low low-” _

_ Hulk protect, _ the Other Guy informed him, voice booming through Bruce. 

_ No! What are you doing? Let me up so I can help. You can hold onto the body for a little while, just let me know where we’re going. Let me help! Please. _

_ “Hey, big guy guy guy. We did it, the job's finished. Now I need you to turn this bird around, okay bird around, okay? We can’t track you in stealth mode.”  _ Bruce felt himself rising up toward awareness with each one of Nat’s words. _ “So help me out. I need you…” _

But then her voice was gone, taken from him. 

_ You bastard! You fucking- Let me out! Let me help! _

There was only silence. If sleep were real in this state, Bruce achieved it, waking listlessly to the throbbing  _ “low low low low Hey, Big Guy sun’s getting low low real low you can do? do? do? Do?” _

_ Hello? Hulk? Where am I? _

_ “Best You Can Do Do DO  _ **_DO DO_ ** **DO DO** _?” _

_ Please, _ Bruce sobbed, feeling his consciousness shake. He’d always been able to feel the Hulk before, they had one foot in, one foot out kind of policy when it came to control of the body. But he was alone. 

_ “It’s main event time event time. Time. Time. Time. Time time.” _  An unfamiliar voice crashed over Bruce.  _ Hulk, who is that? What’s going on? _

There was only a grunt as a response. 

_ “Aaaaaaand now, I give you your Incredible Hulk Hulk Hulk HULK HULK HUlk lk lk lk hulk I give you _ **_HULK_ ** _.”  _ Cheering sliced through him, screams of excitements flaying him alive. Somehow physical pain imposed on his mind and he felt this unknown crowd’s joy. He strained against the grip it had on him, but there was nowhere he could go to be safe from their jeers and applause and  _ screeches _ . 

Each blow the Hulk sustained shook his foundation and each blow Hulk landed took something out of him. He was afraid he was going to be chipped away at until he was nothing. 

_“low low low_ low low **low** **_low LOW Low_** _ **l** ow low”_ _Nat?_ She wasn’t there. Never was. When the cheering subsided into a low rumble of congratulations, Bruce found himself slipping back into unawareness. 

_ Banner dumb. Hulk smart. Hulk protect body. _

_ I just want to see light. _

_ Banner lie. _

_ Please. _

_ “Hey, big guy. Ready to get some work done?” _

_ Who is that? Hulk? _

_ “Hulk ready.” _

_ I’m sorry.  _

A soft laugh echoed through him, almost tickling him. 

_ Is she nice?  _

Hulk’s presence pushed at him until he went back to sleep. 

Time passed helplessly. Bruce would sometimes brush up against consciousness only to be met with lost words and misplaced sensations. He once woke to the phantom smell of cooking meat, feeling non-existent vomit rise up in him until he drifted away. 

_ “low low low low lOW LOW LOW  _ **_LOW_ ** **_LOW_ ** _ ” _

_ I’m sorry.  _

He felt the Hulk pressing up next time him. It was the closest he’d been to the front seat in a long time.  _ Hulk? Please, I just want to see the sun. I swear I won’t- What are you doing? “low low low” Hulk, I swear! “low you can DO?” _

_ Go to sleep. No place for you.  _

He felt the sensation of air being squeezed out of his lungs, choking him. 

_ I’m not trying to threaten you, I’m- _

_ Banner can’t threaten Hulk. Me. Hulk is strong. _

Bruce clawed towards the kaleidoscopic lights before he felt Hulk surround him, trapping him. Inky blackness filled him, pulsing through him. He was suffocating in his own mind. 

_ Banner SLEEP! “sleep sleep sleep sleEP SLEEP S _ **_LEEP SLEEp sleep_ ** _ sleep sleep  _ sleep”

An older man was speaking.  _ “Brilliant out there, sir Hulk! Absolutely marvelous!” _

_ “Hulk like fights! Hulk win!” _

_ Hulk, no. This man is lying to you. He just wants you to do what he says!  _ Bruce clawed at the thick darkness surrounding him. Hulk has been tricked. He could feel it, he knew it. 

But then the Hulk turned his focus to Bruce and he stopped dead, his thoughts freezing. The Hulk shifted his consciousness a step forward and Bruce felt himself shrink. _I’m sorry! I’m sorry I’m sorry sorry sorry SORRY! “low low_ ~~ _low low low_~~ **_LOW_** ** _low_** _looooow”_

He only slept after that. 

A jolt went through Bruce, knocking him out of the faux sleep he was drifting through. 

_“YEEEEEeeeeeE_ ** _EE_** _SssSSS!”_ _Thor?_ Bruce wondered. The torturous screams that usually accompanied his waking were rapidly extinguished. “ _We know each other! He’s a friend from work!”_ These echoes were so much clearer than usual, crisp, almost new. The stayed solid for longer until dissolving into “ _from work from work work work work_ WORK”

_ “Loki loki loKi LOkI lOkiIKoLlokilokiloki” _

“Banner! Hey, Banner!”

Bruce felt himself drift upward, only to be swatted back down.  _ Thor? What’s going on? _

_ “sleep sleEP SLEEP  _ **_SLEEP_ ** **_SLEEP_ ** _ ” _

_ “The sun’s getting real low!”  _ Thor’s strangled voice swore. Bruce felt the Hulk grow only more enraged. 

Bruce floated, feeling himself move one way or the next as Hulk’s power pulled at him until

“Hey, big guy.” He knocked against the steering wheel without any warning. “We did it, the job-”

Hulk pushed Bruce away from the wheel, but Bruce felt power course through him that he hadn’t felt since the last time he was in charge of the body. His grip tightened and “this bird around, okay? We can’t track you in” he bucked back against the Hulk as they wrestled “me out. I need you” for control. 

And then he was blinking into real light. 

“What happened?”

**Author's Note:**

> Co-consciousness: (not accurately depicted above) Events for the physical world being perceived in the inner world. In this case, the words that Hulk is hearing. Bruce never receives more sensation because he is floating between the trunk and the backseat when he does hear new words. 
> 
> **I'm not a psychologist, I don't have DID, I don't know anyone with DID. I'm just extremely interested in the disorder and am aware that this is probably not at all how DID works.**
> 
> **Also, they don't have an inner world, just a space between control and unawareness.**
> 
> **Thanks to my beta, Mxy, for knowing I'm trash and still sticking with me anyway.**


End file.
